SEABROOK — The woman who sold a controlled drug to Darriean Hess and loaned her a car hours before Hess struck and killed two bicyclists on a Hampton bridge, is being held on $10,000 cash or corporate surety bail.

Cindy Sheppard, 48, of 51 Ocean Boulevard, Hampton, was charged during a video arraignment this morning in Seabrook Circuit Court with a felony count of selling the painkiller drug, fentanyl, to Hess around 1:30 a.m. Saturday. Sheppard made no plea this morning since the charge is a felony and the case will be moved to the Rockingham County Superior Court. She is also pleaded not guilty to a violation level offense of allowing an improper person to operate her car.

Sheppard, a double amputee with no legs from the knees down, had loaned her car to Hess, 19.

Less than an hour before the drug purchase, at 12:46 a.m., Hess had been pulled over by police and ticketed for driving without a motor vehicle license and speeding as she crossed the Neil R. Underwood Memorial Bridge. That is the same bridge where police say Hess was behind the wheel of the vehicle that mowed down Pamela Wells, 60, of South Hamilton, Mass., Elise Bouchard, 52, of Danvers, Mass., Uwe Uhmeyer, 60, of Essex, Mass., and Margo Heigh, 54, of Danvers, Mass., at approximately 8:30 a.m. Saturday morning.

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Cindy Sheppard makes a video court appearance on Thursday morning in Seabrook Circuit Court on a felony count of selling a painkiller to the 19-year-old Seabrook woman involved in a crash that killed two bicyclists Saturday. (John Huff/Staff photographer)